Onthebus Bolivian Bus Review

Alia waiting to board bus back to Sucre - Tarabuco, Bolivia

I´ve heard so many horrendous things about South American bus trips I wondered if they were true. The following is my review of the few bus trips I have taken thus far.

Cochabamba to La Paz (RT) - Smooth evening ride by the full moon, gently winding through the mountains. Two Bathroom breaks in 8 hours & I was able to sleep almost the entire way as I trusted in the driver! Alia and I have decided that we believe in anything named "San Francisco" (we LOVE the Bay area) as this was the name of the bus line and by far the best we ended up taking. We also stayed in the San Francisco Hostal while in Sucre that was also definitely.... 5 STARS *****

La Paz to Cochabamba - Daylight meander, beautiful views of the Andes snow capped peaks. Sylvester Stallone movie dubbed in Spanish, loud and staticky with speaker right over my ear and movie that kept skipping every 20 seconds ruining the breathtaking scenery. I covered my ears with my coat to no avail. Finally replaced with an Arnold Schartzenagger flick with good sound. This ride was saved from 2 Stars due to the entertaining Bolivian Jesus Freak who worked the aisles selling chocolate...."Without Chocolate you cannot live! Please buy my chocolate!" who then started reciting bible verses until his chocalate was bought. It looked like he made 10-20 Bolivianos. !Viva La Bolivian Entrepeneur! 3 STARS***

Cochabamba to Sucre - Absolute Hell! 10 Hours of being thrown around in a washing machine. No gentle cycle! No fluffing air dry! Just heavy wash and just waiting for the bus to flip, as it wound around curves on edges of cliffs at 60 MPH PLUS++++ on washboard roads at night. Driver never used brakes. Bat out of hell the minute he left Cochabamba. Before we left on our trip the Kindergarten teacher told us what to expect on the ride. Her words in broken English rang in my ears " The road is rough. You climb the mountain. It is a moment. " I think I had about 500 moments of sheer panic. If it weren´t for the calming effects of Kate Wolf in my earbuds that worked as a sedative I would have been screaming bloddy murder the entire way. But we made it! ----(MINUS) 5 STARS

Sucre to Cochabamba- The return night trip through treachrous mountains. Alia and I both braced ourselves for the return ride and brought plently of chocolate. We got the back bench seat, stuffed inbetween 3 smelly men reeking of cologone and beer. The driver drove cautiously, thank the goddess! Still I was up the entire 10 hours because the seat in front of me reclined onto my knees and I could never get comfortable. Alia slept almost the entire way. Well, that is except for the continuous attempts of the man on her right who tried to put his hand on her leg (she told me later or else I would have smacked him) moving this safe drive down to ** THREE STARS

Note: This review does not contain the various shuttles we took and cab rides which incidentally were all 5 STARS. Except for one instance all the cab drivers in Bolivia were great drivers and didn´t try to rip us off. Bus ride from Cochabamba to Santa Cruz yet to be taken and rated.